In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day, join the Honeymoon Israel community for a DAY ON this Monday, January 16!
At Honeymoon Israel (HMI), our goal is to live our Jewish and organizational values each day through our words and actions. Values like responsibility, open-mindedness, care, and community are at the core of who we are and what we do. How does this come to life at HMI? One of the ways is through Days On.
What is a Day On? Different than a ‘day off,’ HMI staff takes the opportunity to step outside of the office and pray with our feet. During a Day On, we pause regular meetings and daily office work to spend the day learning and serving our communities! In the course of a year, we observe four Days On: General Election Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth, and César Chavez Day.
This year, we invite you to join us in our Day On by getting involved in your local community. A Day On can look different for everyone, especially if you do have to go to your office, but the overall theme is civic engagement and learning. Grab your partner or some friends from your cohort, and spend some time learning more about social justice causes and history, or volunteer your time to support organizations that speak to your heart.
In honor of MLK Day, check out HMI’s list of different volunteer opportunities and educational resources for your own MLK Day On, courtesy of Randi Reed, HMI’s Assistant Director of Jewish Service!
Service Opportunities – In Person AND Virtual
Did you know MLK Day is the only American federal holiday designated as a Day of Service? We’d like to invite you to live your Jewish values to serve and strengthen our communities together.
From January 13-16, join HMI and our nonprofit partner Repair the World by volunteering in-person or virtually.
Read, Watch, Listen, Follow
There are tons of great resources with a Jewish racial justice lens to explore. Here are some of our favorites!
Read
- “Black, White & Jewish” by Rebecca Walker
- “Black Power, Jewish Politics” by Marc Dollinger
- “Thoughts From a Unicorn” by MaNishtana
- 7 Poems to Read on MLK Day
Watch
- Shais Rishon and Ilana Kaufman’s Eli Talks on Race and Judaism
Listen
- Code Switch by NPR
- Jews Talk Racial Justice by Joyous Justice
- Still Processing by Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham
- BOLD: Conversations about Race
- Black Jewish voices
Follow Jews of Color on Social Media
- @koshersoul
- @MaNishtana
- @Ylove
- @RabbiSandra
More Ways to Get Involved
Want to learn more about racial justice issues? We’ve put together a list of resources below that you can explore on your own terms, from simply supporting businesses owned by people of color to hosting your own conversation on issues in your community. Explore and let us know how we can support you!
Get involved with organizations supporting Jews of Color and creating multi-racial, multi-ethnic Jewish community, including Ammud, Be’chol Lashon, Dimensions Educational Consulting, Edot Midwest, Jewish Multiracial Network, Jews in All Hues, Jews of Color Initiative, Jewtina & Co., JIMENA, Mitsui Collective, and Tzedek Lab.
Attend local council, tenant, union, school board, and community meetings.
Frequent restaurants and other local businesses owned and operated by people of color.
- Find a local book seller HERE
- POC-owned Etsy Shops
- POC-owned Businesses to support
Examine the leadership of organizations you work for/volunteer with. Are all people represented?
Redistribute financial resources to Black, Brown, and Indigenous individuals and communities through crowdfunding platforms.
Learn more about local and national issues that impact communities of color. Learn the history of your neighborhood and local communities.
Educate and Discuss
- Host a conversation about racial, food, and/or education justice with your cohort, your synagogue, minyan, or other religious community.
- Organize a racial justice book club to read books by authors of color, and purchase books from a local POC-owned bookstore.
Find an Accountability Buddy! We know that one best practice for following through on our goals is having someone to check in with and hold us accountable. We recommend you find someone, right now, to be your partner in getting more involved in racial justice issues. Whether an HMI buddy or not, exchange emails and set a date to check in with each other about your next steps. How can you support each other in getting more involved in your community?
Honeymoon Israel Service Statement
Our values are an external expression of the covenant, the responsibilities and obligations we have to ourselves, our family, the human family, and the entire world. At Honeymoon Israel, one of those fundamental values is Tikkun Olam, the obligation to “repair the world.” We believe in the Jewish teaching that the world around us contains brokenness and we, as citizens of the world, have a responsibility to join in the ongoing work to help repair it. One person alone can not fix this world, however together, we have the collective power to move towards a repaired world.
We realize this effort at Tikkun Olam, in many ways, in service, learning, and relationship building; at home, in Israel, and across the world as part of the incremental process that leads us closer to our collective vision.
